Defeat
by Grandiose Me
Summary: A snippet set just after Metroman's wholly unexpected demise.


The following takes place between the 'death' of Metroman and the scene at City Hall. (Cue dramatic clock sound-effects from _24_.)

* * *

Megamind had finished laughing. Roxanne's eyes were still glued to the scene of wreckage in front of them, her heart hammering in her chest, her mouth completely dry. One of the alligators had worked its way out of the pit and was slowly lumbering across the room after a brain bot, but she didn't even notice it.

Dead. Metroman was dead.

Her eyes skittered over the caped skeleton, unable to look too closely at it, shying away as though in denial. She just couldn't believe it. He… but… but Megamind _never_ won. Metroman was invincible! She'd seen him catch planes, walk through infernos, heck, she was pretty sure he'd _actually flown into the sun_ a few times. Copper? When did _pennies_ factor into this? How could… and... her brain just couldn't quite fathom it. She felt some dark and deeply desperate denial crawl through her chest. But there it was. Metroman was dead, and on some level, in some way, it was her fault. Maybe she'd gotten too complacent. She'd gotten so used to getting kidnapped, to getting rescued, that she'd somehow completely forgotten that Megamind was even _dangerous_.

But she remembered it now. Looking at his soot-stained face, the grin of triumph still firmly fixed upon it. _Very_ firmly fixed upon it. Almost like his face had frozen that way. Metroman was dead, and no one was coming to rescue her now. She was completely at the whims of this villain, at his mercy, he could do whatever he wanted to with her, and right then she felt truly terrified of him in a way she never had before.

Minion cleared his throat. "Um, sir? Code: we should probably implement the victory plan now."

Megamind shook his head, blinking and then straightening his shoulders out a little bit. "Yes. Yes, of course, Minion. Code: let's do that," he agreed.

Roxanne cleared her throat, slumping a little against her restraints and wondering what was going to happen to her now.

"Of course, sir, naturally." Minion paused, and if she'd been paying attention to him, she would have seen the way his eyes turned meaningfully in her direction.

With an expression that seemed to imply he'd just remembered something, Megamind threw his arms into the air and really let loose with another laugh, his voice sounding just a little bit weirdly strained throughout. "Excellent! Metrocity is MINE! All mine! I have seized victory from the jaws of loading-time related defeat, Minion! I – oh." He paused, his arms still stretched up. His eyes landed on her, then darted quickly towards Minion, and then back and forth again a few times. As though they were playing tennis. "Right. Roxanne Ritchi." He said her name in his usual fashion, which happened to be with a vaguely menacing lilt.

She flinched. Here it came, then. She wondered, dazed, if he would actually kill her now. That seemed… well, likely, she guessed. Wasn't that how it was supposed to go? 'Unless you rescue Roxanne Ritchi, Metroman, I'll kill her?' That was the verbal arrangement, anyway, and while she'd never imagined that it would get to a point where Metroman _actually failed_, that had apparently happened. Her chest clenched with a mingled surge of guilt and fear and resignation, so much so that she didn't really notice Megamind's hastily whispered conference with his chief henchman.

"-I don't _know_, I never anticipated-"

"-can't just leave her there, sir, we'll have to exit the base if you want to go to City Hall, and you know how inventive she can be when you leave her alone-"

"-obviously not very comfortable. Not that that's any concern of _mine_-"

"-sure, sir? Because I could-"

"-no, don't, I'll handle it, it's fine."

The click of a pair of baby seal leather boots across the fake observatory's floor caught her attention as Megamind stepped towards her, pausing just short of the alligator pit.

He hit a button.

She braced herself.

But the pit simply closed off, sealing the non-rampant alligators back inside. The chainsaw and razors retracted, the gun slid back into its stand, all of the various death traps, in fact, seemed to slide back into the bases and holding places in the walls and floor. Megamind cleared his throat, folding his hands behind his back and adopting a familiar air of superiority.

"So," he said.

Roxanne waited, still bracing herself, still locked in her uncertainty. For a second she thought she saw the same hesitation mirrored in Megamind's sharp features. What came next? What happened now? Briefly, oh-so briefly, she wondered if _he _even knew. Then he hit another button, and her world filled with the a sudden puff of gas, the perfume dragging her into unconsciousness, blurring the sight of Metro City's greatest criminal mastermind. The man who had destroyed Metroman, and would presumably end her life, too. _Well,_ she thought, falling back against her chair. _At least I won't have to be conscious for this._

But when she opened her eyes a few hours later, she was in her apartment, lying on her couch cushions with nary a hair out of place and only the ash on her dress as a reminder that the world had just turned inside-out.


End file.
